U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Power One en path to New Jersey, U.S., June 6, 2025.
Nathan Howard | Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump stated on Friday that Chinese language President Xi Jinping agreed to let uncommon earth minerals and magnets circulate to the US, a transfer that might decrease tensions between the world’s largest economies.
Requested by a reporter aboard Air Power One whether or not Xi had agreed to take action, Trump replied: “Sure, he did.”
The Chinese language embassy in Washington didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Trump’s remark got here in the future after a uncommon name with Xi aimed toward resolving commerce tensions which were brewing over the subject for weeks.
At the moment, Trump stated there had been “a really optimistic conclusion” to the talks, including that “there ought to not be any questions respecting the complexity of Uncommon Earth merchandise.”
In one other signal of easing tensions over the difficulty, China has granted momentary export licenses to rare-earth suppliers of the prime three U.S. automakers, two sources accustomed to the matter stated.
The U.S. president’s prime aides are set to fulfill their Chinese language counterparts in London on Monday for additional talks.
“We’re very far superior on the China deal,” Trump instructed reporters on Friday.
The international locations struck an settlement on Might 12 in Geneva, Switzerland, to roll again for 90 days a lot of the triple-digit, tit-for-tat tariffs they’d positioned on one another since Trump’s January inauguration. Monetary markets that had fearful about commerce disruptions rallied on the information.
However China’s choice in April to droop exports of a variety of important minerals and magnets has continued to disrupt provides wanted by automakers, laptop chip producers and army contractors world wide.
Trump had accused China of violating the Geneva settlement and ordered curbs on chip-design software program and different shipments to China. Beijing rejected the declare and threatened counter measures.
Uncommon earths and different important minerals are a supply of leverage for China as Trump might come beneath home political stress if financial development sags as a result of corporations can’t make mineral-powered merchandise.
Since returning to the White Home in January, Trump has repeatedly threatened an array of punitive measures on buying and selling companions, solely to revoke a few of them on the final minute. The on-again, off-again method has baffled world leaders and spooked enterprise executives.